After placing 19th in the nation among according to evaulation standards used by the U.S. News and World Report earlier this month, Falls Church’s George Mason High School ranked sixth in the D.C. Metro area, second in Virginia and 84th nationally in a Washington Post ranking released this week. The Post ranking is according to the “Challenge Index” criteria developed by education writer Jay Matthews. That is based on the number of college-level tests given at a school divided by the number of graduates in any given year.

It also integrates percentage of students who come from families that qualify for lunch subsidies and the percentage of graduates who passed at least one college-level test during their high school career.